Calendar
The calendar has been the common reckoning of time since the age of settling. The "months" are ordered to 61 days seasons called moons, each one with a holiday ending the season and bringing the new one in. Each "year" or six seasons is called a "Sun". The calendar is inherently agrarian in its history, following the seasons of growth. Moons Waxing The Waxing is the time of year when the long night finally begins to wane, and the sun begins to come out of its long hiding. Fey creatures roam the forests, said to be doing the work of the goddess Silvania in restoring life to the forests. The first signs of life peak out from the blanket of snow that covers the lands. The Thawing The Thawing is the last day of the moon of Waxing. The people celebrate the Thawing by burning effigies of frost giants to celebrate the sun god Leander's symbolic victory over winter. Druids revel in their groves and priests in their temples, claiming that this revelry helps to lend strength to Leander in his coming. Stirring The Stirring is the time of year when life shows its self in full bloom. Leander and Silvania are said to renew their pact of marriage, resulting in the fecund state of the earth. Animals gather in large quantities around water sources, and even the most aggressive animals harm not the others. It is strictly prohibited by temple law to harm any animals gathered in such a supernatural peace. The Wakening On the Wakening, the last day of the moon of Stirring, children roam the fields to collect many local flora. When they return, the women of the settlements fashion the plants into wreaths and laurels that are worn by all of the revelers. Children play games around a wakening pole. The local bards put on a parade. The ruckus of it all is said to rouse Balhut, the god of dragons, from his celestial slumber. The stars shine brightly through preternaturally clear skies, and a meteor shower symbolizes Balhut's wakefulness. Embers Embers is the growing season. Days are very long, sometimes with 20 hours of daylight. Productivity and travel skyrocket. Balhut is said to be aiding his friend, Leander (the sun), in his hard work, resulting in long, hot days. Festival of Flames The Festival of the Flames is the last day of Embers. Villages gather to stoke communal bonfires as the sun of the longest day of the year ends. Shrines of Anactyr are erected where many people renew their bonds of marriage, oaths, or other promises. Oghma is venerated on this day alongside Anactyr. Often priests of Oghma display their holiest relics in their temples for faithful visitation. Harvest The Harvest is the time of reaping in Otumat. The crops are harvested, and the gods praise Leander for his good graces. Ayuruk is said to visit especially in this time. Harvestfest Farmers take the first of their crops to local temples and shrines, and either donate it to the temple or offer it as votive to the gods, depending on tradition, as a matter of thanksgiving. If offered to the temple as tithes, the priests bake a sacramental bread of unknown power. Because of Ayuruk's regular visitation, visiting the sick and dying is customary. Among especially devout human villages, the priests and wealthy of the settlement stand at shrines and give offerings of silver pieces. The most zealous of Ayuruk's priests do not stop until the temple's coffers are completely empty. Rapture Rapture is the moon when the days grow noticeably shorter. Death is memorialized as the world of Otumat begins to go into a supernatural slumber. Fey creatures are absent from even regular posts. Offerings of marigolds are brought to graveyards. After seven years of burial, it has become customary to dig up the graves of the dead and inter the bones in ossuaries. This grim duty is generally completed by the clerics of Ayuruk and the Wayfarer working in tandem. Equinox Equinox is a mystical time of year where the dead are permitted a brief reprieve from whatever their afterlife might be to roam the earth. The dead are generally not free to go where they wish, though, and instead, they roam across the lands in a straight line, passing through where they were born at midnight. The ghostly loved ones may not tarry long, but they often bring a sense of renewed spirit or answers to their living friends and family. A ghost who is troubled by the last moments of their life may appear distorted, angry, or even absent from the march. Reverent festivals are held, generally celebrated in small multi-family units, to welcome the dead back in their fleeting visitation to the prime material plane. Bleakwinter Bleakwinter is a dire time for the people of Otumat. Soon, the days disappear to slivers of light for a few hours or even minutes. Darkness prevails, and a great frost takes over the land. The Balhut is said to be slumbering, and without his brother god, Leander (symbolized as the sun) cannot burn brightly. Supplies often run short, and an village unprepared for Bleakwinter could mean that even the highest officials freeze to death in their manors. Imblot When the winter is in its most fierce, and the nights are their longest, the clerics of the All-father descend from the tribelands, the wilderness, and the hills, in part for ritual and in part for self-preservation. They go into the villages and organize imblothlaut, an ancient tribal ritual. Each wealthy family donates their healthiest piece of livestock - the poorest often donate tithes to the priests of the All-father that he may purchase communal livestock from the proceedings. The animals are ritually slaughtered, the lifeblood of the creatures used to wash shrines to the All-father, and otherwise pour the blood on the earth in ritual libation, the hope that the life essence of the most precious creatures would reinvigorate the mighty fecund earth. The meat was cooked (always boiled) over a fire, and the meat was fed to all ritually. These strange festivities would last in a village until a diviner of Oghma confirmed the end of Bleakwinter, at which point the priests of the All-father return to seclusion.Category:Lore